Knee-jerk Kossack intolerance obviously supported by Kos himself

I provide a series of comments from people who have left or been in the process of being booted from Kos.

Here’s one of the best comments I’ve read from one of the few, and rapidly disappearing, critically thinking diarists there:
GWHayduke says:

’Toe The Party Line Or Be Silenced’ ought to be emblazoned on the masthead of the site. …

Mike S, Kestrel, taylormattd, Natural Anthem, Carnacki, Eternal Hope, shermanesq, als10, boadicea, jimreyn, wiscmass, trashablanca, BlueInARedState, Albatross, condoleaser, Wbythebay, DemocraticLuntz, zephron, you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

I'll leave you with this ... If DailyKos is the Last Best Hope for the future of the Democratic Party, and the Last Best Hope for the future of the Republic, both the Party and the Republic are doomed, for any community that is so intolerant as to routinely practice censorship of honest, if unpopular, opinions will eventually, like the former Soviet Union, collapse of its own weight.

I came here and lent my support to this community because of the moral bankruptcy of the Democratic Party, and because this community did indeed appear to be the Last Best Hope to remake it into what it should be.

Clearly, I was mistaken.

"I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

-- Abraham Lincoln

Or here’s Proximity1:

(My one comment), apparently went beyond what Dailykos could tolerate in unconventional views and so, it seems, they censored it.

Nothing could better illustrate the power of words, of unpopular ideas than to see one's views censored as unacceptable. I recommend that those of you who think that in our society all opinions are open to debate and discussion re-examine that assumption --yes, "even" in a so-called liberal, open-minded forum such as the Dailykos is supposed to be. On mentioning on a thread ( in another public forum) that I'd been banned from the New York Times reader fora, I was asked by one regular there why I was banned. The answer is always simple and always the same: something was written, expressed, which those in authority refused to allow to remain for others to see, to consider.

Since the Dailykos censored my post, I'm obviously through practicing "free speech" there; I'm also through contributing any other opinions of mine to their fora.

For me, they just made a mockery of the principles they are supposed to stand for and they certainly joined President Bush in making a mockery of the very principles for which our nation's combat troops are supposedly risking, and many losing, their lives.

Proximity goes on to offer these comments about Kos’ site management and therefore Kos himself:

To attempt to excuse (diarists allowed to delete others’ comments) as "Gee, you know, we can't help it, we just run the place is more of the sort of bizarre thinking that has so enabled Bush and Cheney. It seems that many progressives have, in the course of becoming terribly “yeah, whatever,” have also lost the capacity to hold those in authority responsible. Among the many remedies available are these: The site's management could instruct all those who register that, while they may issue corrections and retractions to their posted diaries, they may not delete them as this violates the rights and interests of those who take the trouble to read and comment on them. I do not excuse the failure of the Dailykos to have taken at least that minimum measure, since they are responisble for formulating and applying the standards in use at this site.

Almost every day offers me fresh examples of how shoddy reasoning on the part of supposed progressives contributes to their political principles being easily put through the wringer by Neo-cons and Bush-league conservatives. … Yes, whether you recognize it or not, whether you like it or not, that manner of reasoning is absolutely indistinguishable from the blind obedience--given grudgingly or whole-heartedly by the German people of the 1930s and 1940s to Chancellor Hitler.

Or we have a more conservative diarist:

You know, I support your cause of getting Bush out of office. I really do. He's a jerk. And I tried to fit in, and tried not to make waves. But ever since I started here, I knew that there were some fundamental problems with this site and this community, and a couple of days ago they came right to the fore.

Essentially, you guys think you're different, but you're really not. You’re as intolerant of other points of view as anyone else, and you’re just as quick on the draw to censor them. For people who are supposed to embody the liberal "ideals" of tolerance, inclusiveness, etc., as a group you're remarkably mean-spirited and vicious. As a non-liberal looking in on the liberal world, I'm decidedly unimpressed, and think I'll go back to whatever it is I did before I started wasting time here, and I think I'll stop wasting time on liberals who can't even live by the ideals they slam others for not having.

Or, via gfactor we have former Kos blogroll member Sterling Newberry pointing out similar problems:

It has been a great run, and I have nothing but gratitude for the community and its support. However, the reality is that the moment of swarm collapse has happened, where the community is talking only to itself. Kos is now what DFA became in the late days of the Dean campaign - a bubble. It was waiting to be organized from the top, while it keeps itself in the dark and feeds on shit. A few people will have the ability to cut through the noise - I'n not going to be one of them.

The left blogsphere has a big problem - it is getting dummer. Alito was definitely the point of conversion - nothing but all screaming all the time. Now here is the kicker, the kossacks could have had a place at the fillibuster table - but they wouldn't take it. They had a chance for a meeting early, but they didn't take it. In short, they aren't marginalized because they are being kept out, they are marginalized because they are too busy screaming at each other to get anything done.

...This moment means that the community is about to go down hill in terms of its thinking - because as people with something to say leave, so too will others who have something to say leave.

Could this be fixed? Is it terminal? It can't be fixed, because for the people who are screaming - the swarm - nirvana has been reached. There is now a screamsphere - where on any given day, any given screaming can win the screaming contest.

And, censorship over pointing out Democratic connections to Jack Abramoff resulted in this diary:

In one day, as the result of my persistent criticism of the Democratic Party's participation in the corrupt Washington lobbying game, I've lost my "trusted user" status and have seen several of my comments on the issue rendered invisible.

Believe me, children, not participating at dKos ain't gonna be the end of my world. I’ve been here less than a month, and I “get it.” Like Free Republic.com, the rightwingnut “milblogs,” and Democratic Underground, this is an echosphere as opposed to a site where any sort of truth is hashed out.

Complaining about the apparent racism sounds of some Kos ads and getting torn down for it gives you this diary:

Yesterday I submitted a diary about the advertisements posted on this site,two of which I found rather offensive. I felt that the Brown Devil Ad reinforced old stereotype of the bad black/brown man and thought it was inappropriate to appear in DAILYKOS. I submitted the diary in a respectful manner as I would usually do in real life in the company of friends and acquaintances.

I was sworn at, ridiculed, told to shut up, told to subscribe if I didn't want to see the ads or go somewhere else if I didn't like it, by people who I am sure would not have the rudeness to tell me straight to my face in real life.

Commenting about that smackdown led to this diary pointing out the whiteness of the typical Kossack (a Washington Monthly story, without commenting on race, said the majority of “Kossacks” make more than $60,000 a year and are under the age of 35). (Note: This is one diary that I don’t totally agree with.)

I don't know if this is news to you, but Dkos is mainly a majority of lilly white priveledged WASPS who've never known discrimination and have so many perks handed to them just for being born a lighter shade of pale that they cannot even see the advantages they are given for their melatonin deficiency.

I guess that would be OK if these pink nerd wanna-bes were conscious and considerate to the different lives given to those who have color in their skin and the offenses made daily that go under the radar about having skin pigment, but these crackers not only aren't considerate of their colored peers, they are downright ignorant and red-neckish when confronted with any racial issue.

Anyway, behind the Goodbye Cruel World diaries these are, there’s plenty more smoke, I’m sure.